Lawrence Gingery: Holy Trinity

Lawrence Gingery: Holy Trinity

One

by Lawrence Gingery

This set of three abstract photographs represents the Holy Trinity. Pictured from left to right are the Holy Spirit, God the Father and God the Son. The three photos are actually the same image rotated 90 degrees in different directions, re-sized, cropped and manipulated with photo editing software to show different intense primary colours. 

The actual original image was shot through a balcony window and represents several buildings and an orchard. There was a freezing rain that day that created the water ripple texture seen in the photos. The ice that formed on the outside of the balcony window allowed the naturalistic scene to take on the abstract qualities of flowing shapes. 

At first the bright primary colours give the impression that each photo is very different from the others. This is also true about the Trinity. There are three persons in the Trinity and each is distinguished from the others both by his title and his work. But as you continue to look at the three images, you will also see obvious unity between them. The texture of the images is the same in all three photos. And the flowing forms are organically similar, while they actually are the same shapes. Each photo is unique but shows the same original image. This shows the unity of God. Not three gods, but one God in three persons.

The primary colour of the Holy Spirit is blue and reminds us of water and baptism. In Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist spoke of baptism: “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” You can see a hint of yellow and red on the right side of the photo that gives the suggestion of fire. The unique ministry of the Holy Spirit is found in John chapter 16. He is our gentle advocate and guide. But he also has power to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. Water is both a gentle and a powerful thing and so blue is a suitable colour for the Holy Spirit. 

The primary colour of God the Father is yellow. In Revelation 21: 2-24 we read about the New Jerusalem where God dwells with men. “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.”

The colour yellow reminds us of our own life-giving sun. One day our life will be with God and he will be the light that shines in our lives. In the upper left corner you can just see a suggestion of red along with the yellow. Again this suggests fire and this gives us a picture of God’s purity. God’s fire refines us like gold so that we will be pure and holy as he is (1 Peter 1:7).

In Nehemiah 9:12 we are reminded that the Lord led his people by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. The dark shapes in the yellow image of God the Father might suggest a pillar of cloud and the wavering yellow shapes touched with red remind us of the pillar of fire. “By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.” This is a reminder that God is near us and his presence guides us daily.  

The primary colour of God the Son is red. It is the colour of the blood Christ shed for us as an atonement for our sins. Also very noticeable in this last image is the contrast between dark and light. Intense white in the lower left and deep shadows along the right side are in stark contrast to each other.

We read in John 1:4, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

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Lawrence Gingery: Holy Trinity, 2006, 3 photos of 3000 by 2400 pixels. 

Lawrence Gingery works and lives in Ternopil, Ukraine and is a missionary teacher at Ternopil Missionary Institute. He is an amateur photographer and enjoys photography as a hobby.

ArtWay Visual Meditation July 12, 2015